Not quite 20 years ago I interviewed for a position of managing a metal plate connected wood truss manufacturing plant for Anderson Lumber, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. For several years Anderson had been losing money from their truss operation and higher ups were searching for someone who...

There is a longer, quite fascinating tale to be pondered on the subject of this year’s historic western Canadian shipment backlog, however, for now let’s skip the conspiracy theories and stick to the confirmable facts. The source for this article’s information is the...

We lumber types have come to expect the unexpected. Hence, there is great value when we can identify, well in advance, what the next price manipulating phenomenon might be. 2018 has been a year of looking for an elusive lumber market top. Early in the year I went so far as to call 2018 a bear...

There are three fundamental lumber market components that will likely combine to make 2018 the most volatile year for prices on record.  LABOR: ICE gave notice last week that it intends to crack down on undocumented workers in the construction industry...on the jobsites. We already...

There is a certain obsessive compulsive behavior that motivates some fabricators when it comes to stacking completed trusses and preparing them for shipment to the customer—but did you ever think of the benefits of tight, stacked, aligned trusses? One of the most difficult parts of a...

Part 2 in our TIMWOODS Series When we last left off in our series, I introduced you to my friend, TIM WOODS. TIM WOODS is actually an acronym for the eight deadly wastes (Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-Processing, Over-Production, Defects, and Skills). While the acronym...

At its core, Lean means no waste. The original Lean (Six Sigma) concept defines 7 wastes (Muda) that exist in business. All process waste is categorized into one or more of these categories. The rules for these wastes apply in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries. Defining and...

In the first part of the Primer for Wall Panels, we discussed the fundamentals of wall panel production and how they may figure into your wood component business. In summary, we asked the reader to remember that wall panels were built for decades with little more than a blueprint,...